


Kiss My Eyes And Lay Me To Sleep

by VolxdoSioda



Series: Whumptober 2018 (Complete) [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, Noctis Whump, Whumptober, day 1 - stabbed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-04
Updated: 2018-10-04
Packaged: 2019-07-24 21:42:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16183745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VolxdoSioda/pseuds/VolxdoSioda
Summary: Noctis has known ever since he was little the danger being a Caelum presents. There are plenty of people who adore the royal family, who believe in them and wish them well, but there are just as many who want their heads on a silver platter and their hearts carved out with a rusty spoon.He just never thought he'd ever encounter one so soon, let alone one that's determined to slice him to ribbons while also sticking a knife between every rib bone.





	Kiss My Eyes And Lay Me To Sleep

**Author's Note:**

> A late beginning to Whumptober, but a beginning all the same. 
> 
> And I realize there's probably a lot of unrealistic elements to my handling of pierced lungs and survival rates but shhhhh that's why it's called fanfiction. Let me make my favorites suffer.

Noctis has known ever since he was little the danger being a Caelum presents. There are plenty of people who adore the royal family, who believe in them and wish them well, but there are just as many who want their heads on a silver platter and their hearts carved out with a rusty spoon.

He just never thought he'd ever encounter one so soon, let alone one that's determined to slice him to ribbons while also sticking a knife between every rib bone.

He'd told Ignis he wanted to walk home for once, just like a normal guy. He'd practically used up every trick in the book to make Ignis say 'yes' to the arrangement - no distant car stalking, no Kingsglaive escort, no Crownsguard spy in the shadows. Just him and the open road on the way home. His dad trusted him barely more than Ignis did, but he'd also yielded faster because Noctis has scripted out his argument beforehand, and used a lot of 'well I need to take responsibility for myself' and 'it'll be a good training exercise'. 

Granted, that wasn't to say his dad was  _happy._ But he trusted Noctis' judgement on this. It's just a pity his judgement was utter shit. It was his judgement that led to him being shoved into an alleyway, surrounded on two of his four sides, and stabbed.

It's that judgement that's led to him fleeing for his life, dizzy as he sluggishly bleeds from his side, where the wound is. He hasn't pulled the knife out - he can still recall Ignis' voice on that subject, sharp and no-nonsense.  _'Pulling the weapon out when you have no means to clean or bandage the wound is perhaps one of the most idiotic things you could do. You'd bleed out in seconds. So please do me a favor, and **should** you ever find yourself in this unfortunate scenerio - which with any luck you  **won't** be, leave the weapon _ _ **in**_ _until we can get you somewhere safe, and get you medical help.'_

He's stuck to the alleyways to avoid causing a scene, because there are still people on the streets even at this hour, and the sight of the Crown Prince staggering around with blood on his lips and side and a knife in him is bound to get back to his dad as fast as gossip does between the maids back home. Besides, as far as wounds go, it isn't terrible. He's pretty sure Gladio's done worse on a bad training day, when Noctis just hadn't felt like listening. 

Pretty sure isn't certain though, he thinks as he coughs up more blood. It's getting harder to breathe. Yeah okay, the guy probably hit a lung. And if that's the case, it means his body is probably sucking up enough magic from his core to keep him alive until he can find shelter. He'll probably be left in stasis, assuming he doesn't  _die._

Oh yeah, and there's also the fact that his assailants are  _still following him._ And unless he's very much mistaken, there's a hell of a lot more of them than there was when he got stabbed.

Shit. As much as he wants to be the Big Grown Up right now, he much prefers being  _alive._ So that means sucking up his pride, and dialing for help. 

His dad and Ignis are gonna have  _fits._

Grimacing, he pulls out his phone, swipes his thumb over the screen, taps the 'on' button five times in quick succession, and when the CODE BAHAMUT appears, he hits the microphone in the corner and speaks quickly.

"I'm down in the eastern end of Insomnia, block two, area three, being pursued by two enemies, although there's a strong possibility of more. I've got a single stab wound, though I'm pretty sure--" He has to stop here, because more blood comes up, and for an eternity the recording catches nothing but wet coughing, followed by the sound of spitting. "--I'm pretty sure they hit a lung. So uh. Yeah. Whenever you guys get a moment. Thanks."

He hits 'send' before he can make himself erase the whole thing out of regret of disturbing whatever everyone's doing, and forces himself to hobble faster. 

 

**_0-0-0-0-0-0-0_ **

 

Among the Crownsguard and Kingsglaive, there are six codes used for various hostile scenarios.

Code Bahamut means either Regis or Noctis are heavily wounded, outnumbered, and need assistance out of whoever can get there first and fastest, preferably with guns blazing. 

Code Shiva means much the same, except life-threatening wounds have been sustained, and time is not on their side. It means less fighting, more immediate medical care and evacuation, with heavy emphasis on holding the defensive line, raising the shields, and pulling every available soldier back into the Citadel to fortify it.

Code Ifrit is used for magitek invasions or especially large creatures that have wandered into the city - creatures the Hunters are no match for.

Code Leviathan is basically shorthand for 'our kingdom is under threat, our lives are at stake, pick up your weapons and prepare for an assault on every inch of Insomnia'

Code Titan means there are unregistered enemies at their gates, and they might need to prepare for a fight.

Code Ramuh means 'warning, unknown enemies sighted, currently watching for information'.

In Ignis' time at the Citadel, there has never been anything higher than a Code Titan. King Regis and Clarus have said that once long ago there had been a Code Ifrit when they were young - a Behemoth Tyrant wandered into the city, and it had taken nearly two days to bring it down. 

But there has never been a Code Shiva, or a Code Bahamut issued.

Until today.

When their phones all go off simultaneously, Ignis' blood goes cold. Because he knows this ringtone, and it's one he has never wished to hear. He snatches his phone and opens the message. He expects a shorthand text, not the audio file.

When it plays, when he hears Noctis' words, that wet, bloody cough, he knows with dead certainty that it is no longer just a Code Bahamut - it's progressed to Shiva state. Noctis is wounded, outnumbered, and dying.

And unless they reach him fast, their Prince will die.

It's like watching a storm of locusts unfurl their wings and take flight. Every pair of hands able to hold a weapon does so, and the Glaives and the Guard take to wind and street with barely a pause. Ignis finds himself alongside Clarus, Cor and Gladiolus in the Regalia, leading the charge. Gladio looks furious, pissed, and slightly terrified. Clarus and Cor both look a combination of grim and furious.

There might only be two hunting Noctis, but nobody who listened to the recording thinks for an instant this is overkill. Far better to bring in an army and only need a few than to bring in a few and need an army.

And as it turns out, an army is precisely what they need.

Because it's not just citizens, angry at the royal family hunting Noctis. It's magitek - and it's Niflheim soldiers. Soldiers disguised as Crown citizens, biding their time. They don't know this until Gladio checks a newstation, and the newscaster's voice turns panicked, raw with fear.

The words wash over Ignis like a tide of tar, and all he can think is  _oh god Noctis, hold on._

 

**_0-0-0-0-0-0-0_ **

 

Noctis knows there isn't something right about the things hunting him. Yeah, he's calling them 'things' now, because no man should be able to aim such a shot from so far away.

He's got bullet wounds in his back, and another knife in his side. He's coughed up enough blood to where the front of his shirt looks like a waterfall hit him. He hasn't stopped moving though, despite the fact that he can hear their heckling behind him, the whir of mechanical limbs and the clank of metal parts hitting stone. It's a combination of enemies, he thinks, and spits again. 

He's not stupid enough to think he's going to be found if he doesn't leave a trail. And blood makes a nice, easy trail for the Glaives to follow. He's use magic, but his magic is occupied with keeping him alive. He can feel the stasis lurking though, right on the fringes of his body. His toes and fingers are beginning to feel cold and static-y, like white noise running through the body. 

He dropped his bag a while back, the extra stuff little more than a weight to drag him down. Running hurts, walking hurts, his back is on fire and his hip feels like the bones are grinding up against each other, trapping nerves between them with every shift. 

But regardless of the pain, he has to keep going. He can't die. His dad needs him. The kingdom needs him. So he absolutely can't die.

Even if he kind of wants to right now, just to make the pain stop. 

He isn't paying attention, and in the next moment he stumbles out the end of the alleyway and onto the street. His foot hits cement, and he goes down.

He hears the distant screech of tires (shit, he didn't mean to cause that), and then something that sounds like swearing.

And then something that sounds like an army marching down on top of him.

There's screaming and yelling and warping, voices familiar and not, the burning stench of oil and gunfire, but Noctis is frozen on the ground, focusing on trying to breathe as the world goes mad around him. 

"Your Highness!"

"Got 'em!"

Arms scoop him up, and a warp later they're on top of a building nearby, ducking down behind some metal piping. Noctis spits up more blood, wheezing. This is it, he's convinced. He's dying, whether he wants to or not.

He thinks he sees Nyx's face before he goes under, but that's probably just his brain conjuring a comforting image for him to die to.

 

**_0-0-0-0-0-0-0_ **

 

The Citadel is completely silent.

Regis has never heard such silence, and he never wishes to again. Because the cause of the silence is this - his boy, in the medical wing, hooked up to half a dozen lines and IV's, unconscious, with far too many close shaves with death. He's been healed, patched, his broken bones set, and more than half the Glaives and Guard coming forward to offer their magic to pull Noct's system out of the stasis it had thrown him into. Running away from his enemies had taken every drop and then some from him, and every person that donated their own magic spoke of a harsh pull on their system - a leftover command from the days where the Kings ruled their subjects not just in mind, but heart and body as well. 

Noctis' bloodline demands survival, and all those who offer their lives freely carry the chance of walking away missing things. In this case, it's Kingsglaives without magic for a few days, and dizzy Crownsguard needing to be buddy-carried over to the couches to recover.

The great doors to every hall are shut, and those who don't need to be opened are locked, every window barred. The magic of the Citadel is at an all-time high as every hand that went out into the field hunting for Noctis comes home to roost. There are overlapping patrols, one going in each direction around the perimeter, in every hallway, in every blind spot. Even the Crystal room has been left vacant, the guards there brought down to the lower levels.

The Citadel was so named because it was a bastion, a haven, a great wall that refused to be budged. Now it becomes so again, a towering beast of pure defense that will not allow anything into or out of it until Noctis is awake once more.

But given the doctors' prognosis, that's looking to be for a while yet. At least two weeks, if not longer. It's not quite a coma-inducing state, what his son has been through. But it still rattles Regis to his very soul.

If Noctis had not stumbled out of the alleyway when he did, they would have missed him. Overshot him, because his trail of blood started miles back. By the time they looped around and found him, he likely would have died. 

As it is, it's a miracle that he isn't. That his body, young as it is, was able to hold out so long. 

Regis will give offering to Bahamut later. Give him thanks for keeping their bloodline alive, for keeping Noctis so strong. For letting him live, if only for one more day. 

But for now, he sits by his son's bedside, and waits. 


End file.
